Persistence paying off for USC's Cantu

Feb. 12, 2013

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

A passion for teaching the game has enabled Trojans interim coach Bob Cantu to climb the coaching ranks. USC officials must decide whether they believe he is ready for a Div. I head coaching position.ARMANDO BROWN, FOR THE REGISTER

Can Poly's coach learned this 17 years ago when Cantu, an undergraduate with no basketball pedigree, politely pestered him for a "job" as an unpaid student assistant.

Sacramento State's coach learned this 13 years ago when Cantu followed him around Indianapolis during Final Four weekend in search of his first Division I job.

Henry Bibby learned this 12 years ago when Cantu coordinated USC's youth camps and reminded Bibby, regularly, that he desired to be an on-the-bench coach instead.

Cantu spent two decades chasing jobs, and then his big break fell softly into his lap. Four weeks ago, USC fired Coach Kevin O'Neill and Cantu, his top assistant, got word from Athletic Director Pat Haden that he would coach the Trojans on an interim basis for the final two months of this season.

The man who talked himself into every job on his resume sat nearly speechless.

"It was like, 'Wow, um, OK,'" Cantu, still working out of his assistant-coach office, said this week.

Cantu has done a solid job as USC's interim steward. The Trojans, adrift and inconsistent under O'Neill, are 4-3 under Cantu, who has been credited with getting USC to play looser and with more aggression and confidence. Cantu, though, has one bigger hill to climb.

Cantu, 38, wants to be a Division I head coach. He's not a big name. He has worked his way up from middle school to high school to junior college to Division I, but his mentors believe he's ready to run his own program.

"There's no better choice, as a younger guy coming up, than Bob Cantu," Bibby said. "This would be a no-brainer for me, if I was Pat Haden, to look at a guy like Bob Cantu."

Bibby is among a legion of Cantu backers. By all accounts, Cantu is the best kind of networker: a genuine one. There are no fake laughs and back-pats. Cantu is simply a nice man, one who wins people over by treating them with respect and by working hard. He is earnest, in the best sense of the word.

Don't confuse polite with timid. Cantu is a 5-foot-10 pit bull when it comes to advancing his career. In various jobs, he has run camps, overseen academics, arranged travel, run video and talked to booster clubs. He has spent enough time on the road that he could take a side job trucking produce.

"Coach Cantu is a go-getter," said Jerome Jenkins, Cantu's former boss at Sacramento State. "He's not the tallest guy, not the biggest guy in the world, and I don't know if he looks very intimidating, but he's fearless. He's not afraid of anything. Whatever the situation is, he's going to go for it."

Cantu graduated from Paso Robles High in 1992 and played basketball, but without great distinction. The bench attracted Cantu early, and as a teenager he coached middle-school boys and then took a job as junior varsity coach at Mission Prep in San Luis Obispo.

"It's almost like wanting to be an actor," Cantu said. "It's so difficult to get a break. It comes down to what you enjoy doing, what your passion is. I have a passion for coaching, teaching and mentoring."

On a friend's suggestion, Cantu blindly wrote a letter to then-UCLA coach Jim Harrick in 1994. Cantu said Doug Erickson, who runs UCLA's youth camps, looked favorably on Cantu and hired him as a counselor.

At a UCLA camp, one parent, Craig Impelman, took a liking to the 19-year-old. Cantu said Impelman invited him into his home and, one night, introduced Cantu to a rather notable in-law.

"One night we came home from camp and he said, 'Papa is coming over,' and I didn't know who Papa was," Cantu said. "I figured out quickly who Papa was. I was like, 'Wow, Coach Wooden.'"

John Wooden was the grandfather of Impelman's wife, and the connection fostered a relationship between Wooden and Cantu. The old coach and young coach would meet for meals and Cantu would be a sponge.

"You're sitting there with Coach Wooden, the greatest coach to ever live, and you're excited and your eyes are huge," Cantu said.

The talks with Wooden only reinforced what Cantu knew: He had coaching in his blood.

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